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A courtside interaction between Kyrie Irving and a group of rabbis led to signs being removed at the Dallas Mavericks-Utah Jazz game earlier this week.
According to TMZ Sports, the Utah Jazz asked the rabbis to remove pro-Jewish signs after a brief exchange with Irving.
Rabbi Avremi Zippel and three others held up signs that read “I’m a Jew and I’m Proud” with the intent of sending a message to Irving related to the antisemitism controversy back in 2022.
Irving noticed the signs and responded to the rabbis by saying, “Nice, I’m a Jew, too… Don’t gotta bring something like that to the game.”
Zippel told the Salt Lake Tribune that security told him and his peers that the signs needed to be removed because Irving complained, while another told him it was against team policy to allow signs in the front row.
Kyrie Irving playing in the SLC tonight.
With everything that happened this morning, I thought it’d be appropriate to give him a welcome.
Stay tuned… pic.twitter.com/khs8CkxqDs
— Avremi Zippel (@UtahRabbi) January 2, 2024
The Jazz issued a statement saying the removal of the signs was because they caused a distraction.
“No matter where someone is in the arena, if a sign becomes distracting or sparks an interaction with a player, we will ask them to remove it,” the team said in a statement. “During an out-of-bounds play in the first quarter of yesterday’s Jazz game against the Dallas Mavericks, there was a group sitting courtside whose signs sparked an interaction with a player that created a distraction and interfered with play of game.
“As the next step in standard security protocol, the fans were asked to take down their signs. The part-time employee who told the fans it was the content of the sign that was the problem was incorrect. The issue was the disruptive interaction caused by usage of the signs, not the content of the signs.”
Irving has not commented on the signs in any matter.
The Jazz, meanwhile, went on to earn a dominant 127-90 victory over Dallas.
